A conventional process for laminating a photosensitive-layer comprises removing beforehand that part of a photosensitive layer disposed on a beltlike support which corresponds to the non-laminating region of a base sheet, subsequently feeding the resulting photosensitive-layer-covered beltlike support to the nip between a pair of heated pressure rollers along with the base sheet, and then passing the base sheet and the photosensitive-layer-covered beltlike support forward while the base sheet and the photosensitive-layer-covered beltlike support continue to be nipped and hot-pressed by the rollers, with the photosensitive layer being in contact with the base sheet, to thereby laminate the photosensitive layer to the base sheet.
However, the above-described technique in which that part of the photosensitive layer on a beltlike support which corresponds to the non-laminating region of a base is removed beforehand has had the following drawbacks. First, since the peeling and removal of part of the photosensitive layer result in flying photosensitive-layer debris which deposit on the photosensitive layer in the laminating region, the deposited debris are sandwiched between the base and the photosensitive layer to cause defects if the photosensitive layer having the debris adherent thereto is subjected to hot pressing as it is.
A second drawback of the technique described above is that if the adherence of the photosensitive layer to the support is high, the photosensitive layer breaks when partly peeled from the support, and at least part of the photosensitive layer which should be peeled off remains on the support-and adheres to the non-laminating region of the base to cause defects.